still broke; sometimes knitting

almost there.

The collar on the Hooray! cardigan is moving right along. (I don’t think the official pattern adds the exclamation point, but it’s really hard not to. And besides, why not have a celebratory cardigan at the end of the semester?)

It’s a folded affair, so I’ve got another side to knit. Once I get this one to four inches, that it is.

The good news? A wonderous, miraculous surprise yesterday after my last seminar ever (again): a take-home essay final (only 3 pages, but still … 3 pages) was turned into an oral discussion final over beer and burgers. Infinitely better. Two hours later I was fed, finished, and home with a few minutes to knit before bed. Also, the discussion was good.

Now I’ve got to get busy on this paper that is quite stubbornly refusing to write itself. It’s a part of my dissertation — or at least, I think it will be at this point, but who knows? — and I’m putting a lot of stupid, unproductive pressure on myself to make this draft not just a completed seminar paper (which, goodness knows is already hard enough), but also a good chapter draft. Thing is, I’ve got the feeling I’m missing something … there’s a piece to my approach out there somewhere that would make the whole thing come together, and I’m not sure how to get to it or even what it might be. It’s just that my conclusions seem kind of empty, obvious, and uncompelling at the moment. But, really, I should really just be focusing on finished by Monday.

In not unrelated news, I’ve also discovered an awesome gallery/ coffeeshop near campus that is spacious, light, really cool, quiet, and … really empty. Well, discovered is a bit of an overstatement: someone had told me about it a while ago; I finally overcame my incredible inertia and walked over yesterday. It’s fabulous. And near campus.

Finally, my bump was no match for Der “Original-Taschenlexer”: I knew that Middle High German dictionary would come in handy again.

hooray for burgers, beers, and conversation instead of writing. love that collar (hooray!) — and man, what a great use for big, heavy books. I’ve got one I use as a doorstop…

happy weekend. and happy paper writing. even if you can’t put your finger on them quite yet, those ideas are there. keep writing, you’ll find them. (i’m pretty sure you’ve said something to this effect to me in the last twelve months…)

Hahaha, you bashed it! Brilliant! I suspect that this remedy has been in use since the times of middle high German too – good choice.
I think knowing that you’ve got something else you want to stay sounds like a pretty good first step in the process of finding it. It also means that you probably know somewhere in the depths of your consciousness what it actually is, or what it might be, so keep plugging.
Have a good weekend!